A mother always knows

OOPS these were supposed to be loaded at the end but oh well. Here is Ethan after opening his gift. He loves anything with cars and even better with a track. Caleb is off to the right. He is holding the wrapping paper and pointing to it. He did all the wrapping and is letting everyone know it. We had to use Christmas wrap. That was all we had. LOL.

Here is Ethan dressed up like G.I. Joe. This costume is one of his gifts. He actually picked it out at the Walmart clearance and I hid it until his birthday. Not really very secretive but it worked.

Here is Don helping put the track together. So thankful for him. I never know how to do these darn toys.

Ethan playing with his fast track. Pretty cool toy. He loves it.

Ethans birthday is not until tomorrow. But after we go home from getting the kids off the bus he was getting ready to play a game that one of his friends at church got him. His sisters had the game and wanted to play too but he sat on the rug crying and whining about wanting to play it on the rug and not on the table. He didn't get up but just sat there and continued to whine for awhile. I was wondering if maybe he wasn't feeling well. Don came home right after that and took him upstairs to take his temperature. Sure enough he had a 100.7 temp. I knew it. I think mothers can almost always tell when there is something not right with their child. I felt bad and figured I better hurry and make his cake and celebrate tonight just in case he feels worse tomorrow. The cake below is our 'hurry and make as cute of a cake as possible in less than 1 hr.' Here I just quickly carved out the number 5 and put a bunch of dinosaurs all over. He LOVED it and that is all that mattered. Who cares that it looked like he made it himself. :)

Here Ethan is all excited to celebrate. Poor guy....You can see that he doesn't feel well here.

Blowing out the candles.

Pulling all the dinosaurs off the cake.

Opening up the gifts. He was so excited as soon as he saw a car. He tore that wrapping off fast. He loves anything with cars.

As I was making his cake the darn beaters froze up and quit working so the cake wasn't completely mixed. OH WELL. Then I had just mopped the bathroom and put the freshly washed rug back down. Mayah came to me as I was scraping the last bit of batter into the pan and said that she had just pee'd on the rug. You mean the rug that I just washed and put down like 5 minutes ago?

Got the cake in the oven and started dinner. Had a quick meal of homemade sloppy joe's and tator tots. Ethan loves tator tots and thankfully we had some. Only had 3 candles to put on the cake and forgot to buy icecream at the store on Saturday. Had to run to the little store at the end of the hill to get some. Paid over $4 for half a gallon. WORTH IT. Ethan didn't care about any of it. And I am thankful for him. He is one sweet boy with alot of love to give.

Each year for the kids' birthday we always go around the room and say something we love about the birthday person. It is a great way for the kids and for Don and I to really focus on that one person. And it was so funny when we got to Don. He was taking a bit longer than Ethan thought he should take and Ethan said, "go ahead Dad, say something. Say anything." But Don loves to really think of the perfect thing. He doesn't just want to blurt something out. It has to be perfect. :)

Then after everyone has a chance to say something I always tell them their birth story. They always love to hear it even though it is the same thing year after year. It never gets old to them. And it never gets old to me either. Ethan is the only one of my kids that literally squirted out. The DR. caught him but it was close. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and he was a little blue but thankfully the DR. said he was surprised and said that the cord was extra long. Do you think that was a blessing from up above? I like to think so.

I am very thankful for Ethan. He is such a loving sweet boy and has very lovable personality. He is hilarious and has Don and I laughing quite often. I am truly grateful for him and so thankful he is a part of our family. I can always count on him to say I love you. He is the one that ALWAYS reminds us to read the scriptures each night. He is one special little boy.

Each year makes me a little more sad thinking it is one less year I have with my kids. In only 10 more months he will be going off to Kindergarten and that makes me sad. I am such a baby when it comes to this. Happy B-day Ethan and I hope you feel better soon. You are an amazing blessing to us.